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Je Ne Sais Quoi
Je Ne Sais Quoi
Oct 8, 2024 10:10 AM

Author:Lucie Arnoux

Je Ne Sais Quoi

A funny, heartfelt graphic memoir about living in foreign countries, and finding one's place both at home and abroad.

In this delightful graphic novel, Lucie Arnoux chronicles her adventures around the world. Growing up in Marseille as a misfit with a passion for drawing, she decides to settle in London to pursue her dream career as a comics writer. Je Ne Sais Quoi shows us London through the eyes of a mischievous and clear-sighted young French woman, the joys and pains of being an outsider and, ultimately, how to live life to its fullest.

Reviews

Oh la la, but this is fun!... [Je Ne Sais Quoi] is very endearing, and I predict great things of its creator, who has a passionate heart and an abiding sense of how best to life to its fullest.

—— Observer, *Graphic Novel of the Month*

A magnificent piece of work.... Ducks feels like a book that holds its own alongside the likes of both Guy Delisle (for the travelogue-y aspects of the book) and Joe Sacco (for the more political aspects of the book) whilst, crucially, carving out something of its very own... One of (if not the) standout graphic novels of 2022.

—— Bookmunch

Beaton delivers a masterpiece graphic memoir

—— Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review)

A masterpiece, a heartbreak, a nightlight shining in the dark.

—— Patricia Lockwood, author of No One Is Talking About This

Devastating. Despite the brutal toll Beaton suffered personally, she has woven from her experience a vast and complex tapestry that captures the humanity of people doing a kind of "dirty work" in which we are all complicit, and it shimmers with grace.

—— Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

Engrossing and powerful.

—— Guardian

An exceptionally beautiful book about loneliness, labor, and survival. Beaton is a thoughtful guide through a complex landscape of class and gender, and these pages ache with grief and grace.

—— Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House

Kate Beaton's comics are rich with quiet revelations, intimate details, and a deadpan, devastating sense of humor. A generous and illuminating book; I suspect it will stay on my mind for a very long time.

—— Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley

Ducks is an unforgettable, riveting work. Kate Beaton opens the mind's eye, allowing us to inhabit landscapes and experiences crucial to our time, yet largely unseen. Artful, considered and courageous, Ducks is a landmark work.

—— Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Ducks delivers an immersive, harrowing journey through an industry where the lure of fast money belies darker realities of casual brutality, profound loneliness and soul-cracking isolation. The uneasy echoes of Beaton's story ring well past the the final page. Shattering.

—— Jessica Bruder, author of Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

Honest, compassionate, and clear-eyed, Ducks is a stunning achievement in storytelling that I will be thinking about for a long time.

—— Jung Yun, author of O Beautiful

Engrossing.

—— Irish Examiner

Ducks moves into dark territory - including sexual assault - but Beaton... balances light and shade. No place or person is wholly good or bad, not even the oil sands with their dark satanic drills.

—— Telegraph
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